Following his suspension for Tuesday’s 5-4 home loss against Coleshill, Nathan Summers was restored in the heart of defence alongside Tony James for today’s Hereford Derby at Westfields’ allpay.park.

Hereford kicked off this afternoon's match, and it was Beadle’s side who were first to show. A long ball was played up to John Mills and after getting past his man, Mills’ low shot was palmed away by the diving Westfields keeper Matt Gwynne. However, the resulting corner failed to test Gwynne as the referee blew for a Westfields free kick.

With 12 minutes on the clock, John Mills had another chance to open the scoring. Joel Edwards broke down the left wing before crossing the ball into the path of the onrushing Mills. Mills then managed to get away a shot from the edge of the area, but Matt Gwynne had little trouble in claiming the ball.

John Mills Tries A Shot

Four minutes later it was Mills again with a chance, a cross was whipped in from the right by Nathan Hughes, but Mills' effort was sent straight into the arms of the home keeper.

In the 33rd minute, John Mills' diagonal shot from the left of the box was deflected out for a corner by Westfields’ Saunston. Tony James' effort from the resulting corner was sent wide of the upright for a goal kick.

Adam Page Fouled?

Six minutes from half time, Rob Purdie tried his luck from a free kick 30-yards out following a foul by Jamie Cuss. However, Purdie’s shot was deflected over by a head in the Westfields wall.

Westfield’s best chance of the first half fell in the 41st minute. An initial cross was only cleared as far as Mike Tambling, whose shot from just outside the area hit the underside of the crossbar before being put behind for a goal kick.

HT: Westfields 0 - Hereford 0

At the start of the second half, the referee waved play on after a foul on Rob Purdie, with the ball falling to Pablo Heysham; his shot from 20-yards went inches over Gwynne’s goal.

Chance For Pablo Haysham

In the 55th minute, Westfields' Jamie Cuss had a shot blocked by Tony James, before Mike Tambling volleyed the rebound, but his shot was too high and wide to trouble Bulls’ stopper Harvey Rivers.

Jamie Cuss delivered a long ball up the wing for Westfields to the feet of Aidan Thomas; he quickly whipped in a cross for the home side, but Harvey Rivers managed to palm the ball away before Craig Jones could connect with it.

Hereford immediately responded to the danger when Pablo Heysham broke away with a darting run, with just the keeper to beat, Heysham’s shot was eventually smothered by Matt Gwynne.

After Nathan Summers was booked following a foul on the left wing, Westfields crossed the ball into the 18-yard box from the resulting free kick; as Brad Birch scrambled to get a shot away, Hereford managed to clear the ball as far as Mills. As the striker made a sprinting run deep into the Westfields half, his shot was agonisingly deflected behind for a corner.

Mills With Keeper Gwynne To Beat

As Hereford won the first of three consecutive corners, Purdie was replaced by Aaron Birch after he had picked up a knock. Hereford’s best chance fell to Pablo Heysham; his shot which was destined for the top right hand corner with Gwynne beaten, but the ball was flicked over by the head of James Febery.

After Craig Jones dispossessed Hereford just inside his own half, a powerful run forward resulted in his shot being exquisitely tipped over the bar by Rivers. Then from the following corner, Rivers was forced into making another fine save low down to his left, before a final shot went wide for a goal kick.

With Hereford arguably creating the better chances of the two sides, they were unlucky not to be rewarded in the closing stages of the game. As a long ball was played forward to Heysham, he quickly broke away from Westfields' defence.

Haysham Gets Around Keeper Gwynne

As the keeper came off his line to challenge, Heysham rounded Gwynne before the referee blew for a foul much to the amazement of the away support. With Heysham questioning Tom Reeves’ decision, he was swiftly booked for what appeared to be dissent.

Hereford FC assistant manager Matt Bishop felt this afternoon's game at Westfields was a 'typical derby'.

"I think both teams worked very very hard," Bishop told BN.

"Very physical, a lot of committment going on, both sides had some chances.

"Probably the draw is a fair result.

"Although we are disappointed that we didn't get anything out of the game, a clean sheet was the most important thing.

"It was something we worked on at the weekend with the players in training so delighted about that. But we must turn that into wins."

Bishop admitted he didn't expect a goalless draw after the nine goal game at Edgar Street last Tuesday.

"If you look at the goals we have conceeded it's probably been about us really. We've punished ourselves with silly mistakes and the opposition have capitalised on that.

"What we have to do with this group of players is to cut those out and if we do that and be the threat that we are we'll more games than we will lose."

Hereford FC travel to Heanor next Saturday.

"Every game for us is a cup final, everybody wants to beat us.

"It might not be as physical and the important thing for our players is that we step up every week and deal with the challenge and expectation and deal with the pressure of being the size of Hereford and the expectation of doing well every week.

"It's not easy but we will carry on."

Bishop was asked how well he had settled at Edgar Street.

"I keep speaking to a lot of people in the game and everyone is saying what a great club it is but I already knew that and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself.

"Obviously I would have liked a few more wins under our belt and be further up the table but I know that's going to come.

"You have to remember it's a brand new group of players and it takes time to gel.

"You hear other teams with four of five new players, we've had 18 so it's a challenge but I'm really enjoying it."

Any more players coming in?

"Pete is working really hard trying to get one or two more in just to strength the squad and give us more competition for places. We may need a little bit more experience in the group."

Is the Stourport player (Jamie Willets) still on the radar?

"He may be, I'm not quite sure where we are with that one. He is someone we were impressed with but every game you play someone pops up and you think he's not bad.

"Our job is to try work with the players we've already got and if we can get one or two more in then brilliant, if not we'll crack on with what we have got."

Round 6 sees Hereford make the short trip to Westfields. Westfields are currently 16th in the Midland Football League. Round 6 is a double points round as it's the last match of the month. Results so far:

Sunday, August 30, 2015

The HUST Board is pleased to welcome Andy Carr to the board. Andy will
take charge of HUST communications, handling the website, mailing list,
and publicity for the Trust. Having a dedicated person for this role
will enable HUST to better communicate with its members and the wider
community.

Andy was co-opted at Thursday's Board meeting and is one of four
applicants to be currently standing at the forthcoming elections,
however we would more than welcome more members to stand. Nominations
close on Thursday, and all completed nominations must be received by
then to the Acting Secretary c/o Edgar Street Athletic Ground, Edgar
Street, Hereford, HR4 9JU.

If you are thinking of standing, and would like more information, please contact the Chairman at chairman@hufctrust.co.uk.

In his interview with BBC
Hereford and Worcester broadcast earlier this morning, former Hereford
United chairman Andy Lonsdale claimed that supporters drove him and
Tommy Agombar out of the business of owning the club.

Nothing that wasn't already known
emerged during the interview and afterwards some supporters felt the
H&W must have been short of material this morning to have bothered
to run the interview.

"We put in a lot of money, a lot of money, in excess of £600K," said Lonsdale.

"We came into the club in May 2014 at the time when there was a winding up petition from Martin Foyle in place.

"Any business man who didn't care
about the heritage of the club, didn't care about the fans, eventually
put their club into liquidation and started again losing the history,
losing the heritage, and losing the name of Hereford United football
club.

"What we didn't take into account
was the fans and the hidden agenda which we found out later on and has
come out in social media since.

"It's come out now that the
phoenix club that they've set up now, Hereford FC, was actually formed
in February 2014 before we even started talking to David Keyte. So they
knew what they wanted to do.

"Basically they tried to drive us out of the club.

"The fans are the backbone of the club but at the end of the day there are financial obligations for the club.

"They were offered to buy the
club but they decided not to. They decided to start again as a phoenix
club and that was in place in February. They knew what they were going
to do.

"If David Keyte didn't give them the club, they were just going to get it closed down. That's obvious now."

Lonsdale was asked what happened to drive them out.

"Basically social media, phone calls, text messages, where does it stop? At the end of the day it's a football club.

"I can understand the fans anger but they were venting their anger on people that never caused the problem.

"You've got Alan McCarthy, Alan
McCarthy's wife, never even been to Hereford in their life. They got
hold of her facebook account and her twitter account and started
tweeting her and sending her messages via facebook, absolutely
disgraceful.

"I'll tell you what I think of the fans. The core of Hereford fans are nice people.

"There are keyboard warriors out
there who are hell-bent on making people's lifes a misery. And if you
look at social media now, there are even in-fighting now because they've
got nowhere else to play."

Lonsdale was then asked about the abuse reportedly left on a fans answerphone.

"It wasn't one of us, it wasn't one of the staff that's all I'm going to say.

"I've got a good idea (who it was). No it wasn't me."

WATSON RESPONDS TO LONSDALE

By
Organic Bull

Martin Watson was interviewed on
BBC Hereford and Worcester earlier today. The HUST vice-chairman was
asked about an interview given by former chairmam Andy Lonsdale.

"It just seemed to be a bitter last rant from somebody whose continual lies were exposed time and time again," said Watson.

"They took over on May 28th.
Within two weeks we were kicked out of the Conference because they
refused to pay the bills after having told everybody they were going to
pay everyone.

"They went back on what they said they were going to do almost immediately.

"They said they were not after
the leases until Herefordshire Council admitted they had a meeting and a
request to transfer the leases to one of Tommy Agombar's other
companies.

"We've talked for a long long time about a phoenix club. When the supporters trust was set up there was always a discussion.

"The simple fact was that during David Keyte's four year reign the club lost £1.5M.

"There was a company on paper but nothing else was set up and that company could have been used for anything.

"If they had come in and paid the
bills like they said they would, it would have carried on fine. There
was never any problem with that.

"We kept the same line all the
way through. We gave them chance after chance after chance and they lied
to the fans, they lied to the players, they lied to the staff, they
lied to the Council, they lied to you on Hereford and Worcester, they
lied to the press, they lied to everybody, they did it time and time
again.

"Andy Lonsdale threatened me personally.

"He's claiming abuse and he kept on saying he would go to the police about it but the police appear to have received no reports.

"He seems to be making up a history that doesn't exist.

"You can't stop hundreds of people commenting on things and you will get one or two at the extremes and that's always the case.

"We've got to open negotiations
with the Council and secure the ground and look to build towards next
season. That's going to be done with the fans backing."

Have you got anything to say to Lonsdale and Agombar?

"There's nothing left to say to
them. They came here and treated the club and the fans appallingly and
the players and the staff.

"The vast majority of people are
glad to see the back of them and from the comments H&W are receiving
today it seems that people are quite disappointed that he's been given
air-time today."

KEYTE BREAKS HIS SILENCE

By Organic Bull

Former Hereford United chairman
David Keyte spoke to BBC Hereford and Worcester this afternoon. He says
he was prompted to do so after seeing quotes from HUST vice-chairman
Martin Watson on Bulls News earlier today.

"Thank you for giving me a bit of
airtime, as you know you and I could talk for three hours on this
subject," Keyte told Trevor Owens.

"I've kept my own counsel for the
last eight or nine months but there's been an awful lot of things said,
usually at my expense, that have just sort of supported these various
agendas which different factions have worked on to their own ends.

"I didn't hear the interview this
morning but I tend to read Bulls News for my sins and I noticed the
quote from Martin that said that the club had lost £1.5M in my four
years which is quite frankly absolute nonsense.

"I just felt this was the one thing which would start me getting my two penny-worth into all this.

"The first year in my tenure we
made a profit of £431K. If you recall we bought back the leases and
wrote off the £1M debt to the Richardson Brothers which gave us a net
profit of £431K end of year.

"The next year was the year we
were relegated from the Football League and we chased that a bit, we
tried to avoid it and we ran up a loss of about £400K.

"And then in our first year in
the Conference we had a similar high £400K loss. Technically the final
year of my four years I don't think anybody to this day has closed the
accounts off because we finished before the year end.

"But if you say a similar £400K
or so, the loss in the four years was less than £1M and the directors at
the time funded that £1M out of their own personal money."

Keyte was then asked if he regretted not selling to the Supporters Trust.

"I didn't have the option, they never came back.

"We met the supporters trust
group which significently did not include Chris Williams, their
chairman, who was unavailable. But Martin and four or five other people
came along.

"We met. We being the board of
directors, Dave Preedy, Bob Pritchard, Colin Addison and we listened and
we heard their offer of £1 which you might appreciate from a personal
point of view for all of us was quite close to insulting.

"We asked the question which you
would expect in a business meeting proof of funding, as we were looking
for £300K to pay immediate debts, which they couldn't supply.

"We wanted to know who would do
the due diligence for them, bearing in mind they were a community at
that time of about 400 members. We needed some idea of who would come in
and do due diligence and they couldn't give us an answer to that."

Owens then pointed out that the claim always was that you (Keyte) would not let them see the books.

"David Keyte refused to let HUST
see the books, David Keyte murdered our club. The facts are we left that
meeting and the next day Martin Watson put out an agreed statement,
which I had agreed - he had been good enough to share it with me, which
said 'it was an amicable meeting and that they had left to seek advice
from Supporters Direct'.

"And it was on these very topics
of how do we accommodate due diligence in a private limited company when
we are trying to talk for four hundred members and how do we give proof
of funding when we have about £5K in the bank but we think through
pledges we could get to whatever money they thought they could.

"I've read since from Chris
William's quote that £220K was offered. Never, ever offered in that
meeting. He wasn't there and then they never came back.

"So we were left with two outside investors to choose between and rightly or wrongly we went with Agombar.

"I'm not going to speak for the last period that he was involved and Lonsdale because quite frankly it was shocking.

"But we had sold having decided
as a board we could go no further. Personal finances. We could take it
no further. We needed to find outside investment which we were publicly
saying for the last six months of our tenure. So let's clear that one up
for once and for all."

Owens suggested that the setting up of a phoenix club was a sensible move.

"You could call it a sensible
move. This Hereford FC was opened on April 1st 2014 by two people named
as directors, John Hale and Chris Williams.

"When it became clear that
Agombar was going to fail, they started to introduce that publicly as
the saviour. It had been opened on April 1st when a lot of people were
still trying to fundraise for the old club.

"It will all be opinions won't
it. But as I speak now there will be half of Hereford saying let's not
listen to him he killed our club. But the facts are that there are some
interesting twists of personalities.

"How could the HUST be making
independent decisions on behalf of their members when their chairman
Chris Williams was already set up as a director of Hereford FC.

"How can HUST make independent
decisions rather than just go with there's no other choice but to go in
with these mysterious benefactors who could have, probably could have
come forward and saved the 90 year old club at no more, lots of figures
have been banded about Trevor, but I know for a fact that Andrew Green,
the Agombar accountant, and Lonsdale himself were arguing between
whether it could be £700K or £750K."

Finally Owens asked Keyte whether
he regretted selling to Agombar given 'you said it's not the vicar
coming to buy the football club' and it was obvious he wasn't going to
pass the FA's fit and proper person test.

"Well it was more about the case
that the previous directors had decided to call it a day and he was the
only person that came forward."

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